Tom King was a NRA director whom lost in the recent election, and is President of the New York State Rifle And Pistol Association. He’s also been the president of the NRA Foundation, and he may still be, but NRA’s website live chat feature, operated by InfoCision “did not have that information”. Neither did the Foundation’s website have any information on leadership. Though according to this, https://strongnra.com/tom-king/ Mr. King still is President of the Foundation and a trustee of the NRA Whittington Center.
Mr. and Mrs. Dell’Aquila were met by a small party of friends and acquaintances, upon reaching the NRA Annual Meetings. These people guided them to the area for attendees to vote for the 76th NRA director. There were only two candidates actively campaigning out of the approximate dozen on the ballot, Mr. King, and the other was Charlie Hiltunen, who like Mr. King lost his seat in the recent board election.
To get to the place to vote, Mr. and Mrs. Dell’Aquila’s small party had to walk past Mr. King, to get to where Mr. Hiltunen was located.
Mr. King asked Mr. Dell’Aquila, “Can I have your vote?”
Mr. Dell’Aquila showed him his name on his name tag. Mr. Dell’Aquila said Mr. King did not appear to recognize his name. And Mr. Dell’Aquila said, “I’m the one suing the NRA.”
(For context, https://www.loevy.com/press-release-court-denies-nra-motion-to-dismiss-lawsuit/)
And according to Mr. Dell’Aquila, because the location was so loud, he leaned in, put his hand on Mr. King’s shoulder, and said, “I wouldn’t vote for you if hell freezes over.”
Mr. Dell’Aquila stepped back and Mr. King said, “I don’t want your vote.”
Mr. Dell’Aquila, “Good.”
And as Mr. Dell’Aquila began to turn away, Mr. King said, “We’re gonna get you.”
Mr. Dell’Aquila turned back and said, “Go for it.”
Mr. King said, “We’re gonna get you sooner than you think.”
Mr. Dell’Aquila replied, “Go ahead, I have deep pockets.”
Mr. King said, “You wouldn’t know it by your donations to the NRA.”
And according to Mr. Dell’Aquila, that was the end, and he and his small party walked away.
To be clear, I spoke to both Mr. and Mrs. Dell’Aquila on the phone, and both had the same version of events. Mr. Dell’Aquila, asked that I specifically include this in this article, that he has donated a little over $100,000 to the NRA. And he asked me to specifically mention that that is donations only. It does not include any of the various legal expenses.
In an effort to be fair, and transparent, I gave Mr. King a chance to comment, I emailed him, at his official email address, tking@nysrpa, on April 26, 2025, the following,
“Mr. King,
I have heard of allegations regarding you threatening Mr. David Dell’Aquila at the NRA Annual Meeting.
I would like to offer you the chance to give comment on the allegations before I publish anything.
Thank you.
Nicholas Olson
Publisher of 2awhiterook.com”
No response from Mr. King, and it is going on 8:00pm, April 28th, 2025.
As a follow up, the 76th director winner was Mr. Hiltunen, with 389 votes, while Mr. King had 194 votes.
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